What's the difference between counter and retort?

Counter


Definition:

  • (adv.) A prefix meaning contrary, opposite, in opposition; as, counteract, counterbalance, countercheck. See Counter, adv. & a.
  • (v. t.) One who counts, or reckons up; a calculator; a reckoner.
  • (v. t.) A piece of metal, ivory, wood, or bone, used in reckoning, in keeping account of games, etc.
  • (v. t.) Money; coin; -- used in contempt.
  • (v. t.) A prison; either of two prisons formerly in London.
  • (v. t.) A telltale; a contrivance attached to an engine, printing press, or other machine, for the purpose of counting the revolutions or the pulsations.
  • (v. t.) A table or board on which money is counted and over which business is transacted; a long, narrow table or bench, on which goods are laid for examination by purchasers, or on which they are weighed or measured.
  • (adv.) Contrary; in opposition; in an opposite direction; contrariwise; -- used chiefly with run or go.
  • (adv.) In the wrong way; contrary to the right course; as, a hound that runs counter.
  • (adv.) At or against the front or face.
  • (a.) Contrary; opposite; contrasted; opposed; adverse; antagonistic; as, a counter current; a counter revolution; a counter poison; a counter agent; counter fugue.
  • (adv.) The after part of a vessel's body, from the water line to the stern, -- below and somewhat forward of the stern proper.
  • (adv.) Same as Contra. Formerly used to designate any under part which served for contrast to a principal part, but now used as equivalent to counter tenor.
  • (adv.) The breast, or that part of a horse between the shoulders and under the neck.
  • (adv.) The back leather or heel part of a boot.
  • (n.) An encounter.
  • (v. i.) To return a blow while receiving one, as in boxing.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We analyzed the amounts and types of glycosphingolipids (GSLs) from peripheral blood lymphocytes, monocytes, and granulocytes isolated by counter-current elutriation.
  • (2) It is widely seen as a counter to China’s economic might in Asia, and the world’s second largest economy is notably absent from the list of signatories.
  • (3) "With the advent of sophisticated data-processing capabilities (including big data), the big number-crunchers can detect, model and counter all manner of online activities just by detecting the behavioural patterns they see in the data and adjusting their tactics accordingly.
  • (4) I believe that truth sets man free.” It was a curious stance for someone who spent many years undercover as a counter-espionage informant, a government propagandist, and unofficial asset of the Central Intelligence Agency.
  • (5) Examination was by means of counter immunoelectrophoresis, radioimmunoassay and electron microscope with negative staining.
  • (6) This study sought to determine if and why barriers to the over-the-counter purchase of syringes in the St. Louis metropolitan area might exist, given that no ordinance prohibits such a sale there.
  • (7) But leading British doctors Sarah Creighton , consultant gynaecologist at the private Portland Hospital, Susan Bewley , consultant obstetrician at St Thomas's and Lih-Mei Liao , clinical psychologist in women's health at University College Hospital then wrote to the journal countering that his clitoral restoration claims were "anatomically impossible".
  • (8) These results provide further data which counter the sometimes extreme advocates of the view that compulsory admission and treatment of patients with psychiatric illness is never acceptable.
  • (9) Republicans embraced it as a counter to federal school initiatives.
  • (10) The effect was countered by prior administration of atropine into the site.
  • (11) Last month following a visit to Islamabad Ben Emmerson QC, the UN's special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, said he had been given assurances that there was no "tacit consent by Pakistan to the use of drones on its territory".
  • (12) It could be evaluated both by a plaquing technique and by cell enumeration with an electronic particle counter.
  • (13) In 25 patients we evaluated the efficacy of the prone position to counter these technical difficulties and found that the prone position offers visualization superior to the supine, especially in obese and uncooperative patients and those with abundant bowel gas.
  • (14) Alteration in the temperature of the Isoton diluent in a Coulter model S counter over a range of possible laboratory working temperatures produced a change in the mean corpuscular volume using EDTA and dipotassium acid citrate dextrose blood and a commercial control, 4C.
  • (15) The lower values of the histological score and the possibly lower peripheral plasma concentration of testosterone after the arterial by-pass may indicate a physiological importance of the counter current exchange.
  • (16) The effects of maxillary protracting bow appliance were the maxillary forward movement associated with counter-clockwise rotation of the nasal floor and the mandibular backward movement associated with clockwise rotation.
  • (17) We develop an analogy between the steric hindrance among receptors detecting randomly placed haptens and the temporary locking of a Geiger counter that has detected a radioactive decay.
  • (18) The human intercellular adhesion molecules ICAM-1, ICAM-2 and their counter-receptors, the beta 2 or leukointegrins, mediate a variety of homotypic and heterotypic leukocyte and endothelial cell-cell adhesions central to immunocompetence.
  • (19) A simple equilibrium method for detecting and quantifying these interactions is to study the mutual influence of the molecules on their respective counter-current distribution in liquid-liquid biphasic systems.
  • (20) More than 200 American troops are in the country helping to train the army in counter-insurgency, but there are also said to be intelligence and special forces there.

Retort


Definition:

  • (n.) To bend or curve back; as, a retorted line.
  • (n.) To throw back; to reverberate; to reflect.
  • (n.) To return, as an argument, accusation, censure, or incivility; as, to retort the charge of vanity.
  • (v. i.) To return an argument or a charge; to make a severe reply.
  • (v. t.) The return of, or reply to, an argument, charge, censure, incivility, taunt, or witticism; a quick and witty or severe response.
  • (v. t.) A vessel in which substances are subjected to distillation or decomposition by heat. It is made of different forms and materials for different uses, as a bulb of glass with a curved beak to enter a receiver for general chemical operations, or a cylinder or semicylinder of cast iron for the manufacture of gas in gas works.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) After I pointed this out, even with all the racist retorts he could muster, being told “he’s got you there mate” by his friends was the knockout that saved the night.
  • (2) I found their remarks a little ripe, if mostly well argued, although Nicholson's characterisation of the characters' default mindset as "Brown people bad, American people good" rather misses the obvious retort: "They wanna kill me, I wanna live."
  • (3) By measuring the solubility of Ni5As2 particles in a variety of aqueous solutions, we have determined that particulate Ni5As2 that might be produced during oil-shale retorting could be mobilized to the environment and made available to the cells of living organisms, including humans.
  • (4) Thus, it is possible that Ni5As2 could be solubilized and mobilized to the environment by the flooding of abandoned in situ retorts with ground water or by the disposal of oil-shale product water by spraying it on spent shale beds.
  • (5) The score should have been tied at 2-2 and the natural German retort that one of Geoff Hurst's goals in the 1966 World Cup was imaginary hardly makes the blunder of officials more palatable in Bloemfontein.
  • (6) In reply, Cameron retorts that the changes are infused with the moral purpose of bringing "new hope and responsibility" to benefits claimants.
  • (7) However, this evidence may have appeared stronger to the City of London police, HMRC and the Crown Prosecution Service when they first brought the charges than it did during the case, coming after revelations of phone-hacking and News Corporation's closure of the News of the World, which allowed Redknapp to continually express scorn and retort that he "did not have to tell the truth" to "that newspaper".
  • (8) "Would all these girls," he asks, with a sorrow that defies any glib, one-should-be-so-lucky retort, "be fucking me if they weren't getting paid?"
  • (9) Clinton shows strength over Trump in one of history's most significant debates Read more “It’s all words, it’s all soundbites,” he retorted after a particularly one-sided exchange, adding that Clinton was a “typical politician: all talk, no action”.
  • (10) The education secretary appeared to suggest that Graham was effectively helping opponents of the taxpayer-funded schools, which are independent of local authorities, to intimidate applicants – prompting Graham to retort that the arguments of Gove's department in resisting public disclosure "clearly failed to convince".
  • (11) Written and directed by Gillian Robespierre , Obvious Child tells the story of Donna, a standup comedian in Brooklyn whose chaotic life is a source of bemusement to her parents, who are unable to believe that their twentysomething daughter doesn’t even know how to do her taxes (“Nobody knows how to do their taxes!” Donna retorts, not wholly incorrectly.)
  • (12) The infant formulas were sterilized either by ultra-high temperature (UHT) treatment or by a conventional retort process to give products with low and high levels of MRPs and LAL, respectively.
  • (13) Similarly, Laura Bates's recent article on victim blaming should act as sufficient retort to anyone who thinks police chief KP Raghuvanshi's advice that women should carry chilli powder to prevent rape is symptomatic of a specifically Indian brand of misogyny.
  • (14) Obama, seemingly frustrated with Romney's elusiveness, retorted that it had been his opponent's strategy for 18 months.
  • (15) "That's an insult, Mr Black, that's an insult," Redknapp retorted.
  • (16) The bride retorts: “I’m the one who paid the quoted price.
  • (17) Carly Fiorina expertly defuses Trump on 'beautiful face' retort and foreign policy Read more The New York real estate mogul went out off his way to bash Carly Fiorina , the former Hewlett Packard CEO and GOP presidential rival with whom he sparred in Wednesday’s debate.
  • (18) Mailer punched Vidal at a party, prompting Vidal to retort: "Words fail Norman again."
  • (19) "Because the lawyer said it's legal," Bush retorted.
  • (20) The testicles were retorted at various intervals up to 24 hours.